The MTA will unveil today a five-year capital program that includes a whopping $18 billion to maintain the current transit system and $7 billion toward expansion projects like the Second Avenue subway, The Post has learned.

“This program will ensure that we maintain a state of good repair and also expand the system,” said MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow.

The core of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s 2005-2009 program will go toward station rehabilitation, track-signal upgrades and the purchase of new buses and subway cars.

A draft of the MTA’s wish list will be released simultaneously with the agency’s proposal calling for raising the price of MetroCard discount cards to offset a $540 million operating-budget deficit.

The MTA board is expected to approve a budget and a final version of the capital program later this year.

The state’s Capital Program Review Board must unanimously approve the MTA’s capital program.

Mega-projects like East Side Access will get $4 billion and the Second Avenue subway will get $3 billion.

A Gov. Pataki-backed proposal for building a $6 billion tunnel under the East River to connect the Kennedy Airport AirTrain to lower Manhattan will get $400 million.